Monday, August 11, 2014

Writing Process: The Tiki Palms/Have Suitcase Will Travel Blog Tour

A wonderful writer
named April Bradley recently asked Susan Tepper and me to join a literary blog
tour about the writing process, and we happily agreed. Because Susan doesn’t
have a blog, I suggested she and I have a conversation and post here at Words in Place. First, meet April
Bradley below and go here to read about her writing process: http://aprilbradley.net/2014/08/04/my-writing-process-blog-tour/

April Bradley is a
native of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and lives with her family on the
Connecticut shoreline near New Haven. She is a feminist philosopher and an
American Southern writer. Her work has appeared or will appear in Thrice
Fiction, Narratively and other
publications. April serves as an Assistant Editor for Bartleby Snopes
Literary Magazine. You can find her
online at aprilbradley.net.

And now the discussion
between Susan Tepper and me.

1). What are you working
on?

Susan Tepper-I’m working on four large scale projects. The first is a quick
revision of a new novel that a publisher has asked to see. It’s the quintessential
road novel, with crazy characters and zany plot. Second is a poetry collection based
on a tiny room in my house that I converted to my writing space. Third is a 3-act
play I co-wrote with Dennis Mahagin over the winter. We have a NYC acting troupe
interested, and it may mount in the fall in NY. Fourth is a short prose poem collection
called Dear Petrov. The very first of
the collection was just published in Apocrypha
and Abstractions. Six other pieces from Dear
Petrov have been accepted and are coming out soon in various journals.

I also
write two regular columns: UNCOV/rd at Flash
Fiction Chronicles (author/book interviews) and a yakety-yak column called Let’s
Talk at Black Heart Magazine where I get
to vent my spleen about the good, the bad, and the ugly in our writing world.

Gay Degani-I just finished my very last story for Pure Slush’s 2014 project which is a print anthology with
twelve volumes (one for each month of the year) involving thirty-one authors and
a total of 365 stories. Each author writes a story for a specific day of the month
– mine is always on the 19th – and the stories for each author are linked.
My cycle is about a group of neighbors who survive a ferocious windstorm in January
and how the year unfolds for them. I’m also working on a collection of my short
stories, rewriting, editing and polishing, hoping to find an publisher sometime
later this year.

And lastly, I’m about to embark on writing the prequel to my suspense
novel, What Came Before, which was serialized online in March – seventy 1000-word
chapters in all – and is now available in hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook
formats.

But
Susan, I don’t know how you have so much going on at once. What’s your day like?
How much time do you spend actually in
your writing space?

Susan-That’s a lot on your plate,
too, and I’m excited to hear there will be a prequel to your novel which really
absorbed me. I got intensely involved in Abbie’s life and dilemma. You really know
how to make dramatic tension when you write a novel, and many people do not. I have
seen the books of famous writers come out with no dramatic tension. They can almost
put you to sleep. I think your screenwriting background is an invaluable tool for
creating exciting fiction that moves.

As for how
I do as much as I do, I write compulsively. When I’m not doing a task, or seeing
a friend, or some such thing, I write. Day and night. So you do get a lot of product
this way. It’s never a task for me to sit down and write. I don’t understand the
concept of writers block. It would be like a dancer unable to do a step, which I
can’t imagine either.

Gay-I’m so glad you found
Abbie compelling. The original book contained the text I’m using as a source
for the prequel. I’d told the story from three viewpoints, but over the years,
and after many workshops and conferences, I axed the story of the past. I look
forward to unraveling that in the prequel.

I don’t
believe in writer’s block, but I believe in writers’ distraction. That’s my key
problem. I have an active life and with my husband retired, we always have
things to do and places to go. I also have to guard against my own need to do
other creative things, like bead, paint, draw, take photos, and, of course, read.
Every day for me is a full day, and I have to make sure I preserve time for the
writing. Hence, late nights at the computer happen more often than not.

2). How does your work differ
from the work of others in the same area/genre? (April Bradley added this
observation to the question: Genre is such
a confining word, isn’t it?)

Gay-Do you agree with April’s
comment, Susan, that “genre is such a confining word?” Certainly it is for me. All
the time I was writing my novel, I struggled to explain what it was about, how
to label it, especially in regard to genre. It’s been called a family saga/suspense
and a literary suspense and a mystery as well as being considered character-driven
rather than plot driven. Kirkus nailed
me for not following the thriller formula. Well, I didn’t know it was a thriller.
I’ve never called it that.

I use Joyce
Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood as my guides. They both do “genre” in the very strict
definition of the word, but they expand and deepen and make genre so much for than
such a label implies. That would be the aim of what I write. Not saying I achieve
what they achieve, but rather that’s what I strive to do.

Susan-Gay, I think Kirkus is way
off the mark. First of all, it is just one person who works at Kirkus who made this decision about your
novel. I found the book incredibly suspenseful, and about 50/50 character/plot driven.
I found the characters and plot to be interwoven very skillfully. Honestly, that
Kirkus comment confused me. If I had written
your book, and that comment was directed at me, I would bury it. I think people
read well or terribly.

Each short
chapter ended on a question mark: What is coming next? To my mind, that is quite
suspenseful. Maybe they wanted blood and gore. I have basically learned to trust
my own instincts over the years. Writing is art, and art is totally subjective.
Some people criticize Picasso! He was the forerunner
in Modern Art! An example of why I take criticism very lightly.

Gay-Thank you for that, Susan. So, how do you think your work differs
from others working in your “genre?” Do you even write in a genre? You do poetry,
memoir, fiction? What makes your work uniquely you?

Susan-Honest to god, I have no
idea. I just write whatever wants to come out at any given moment. I don’t control
what I write, or how. I don’t write memoir. Don’t like the form, in most cases,
it’s someone moaning over their life. I write fiction, poetry, plays, essays, interviews.
Whatever strikes me in the moment. I believe in giving yourself over to any art
form. It’s the only way to make the work uniquely your own vision come to life.

3.) Why do you write what
you do?

Gay-The
“ why” of “what I write” is, at first blush, very simple. I keep an eye on what’s
going on around me. You know those little Babybels that come wrapped in red
wax? My family and I like to shape animals out of cheese wax. I wanted to write
a story about that because it gave me a little tingle when I thought about
them. Another example of observation turning into story came this summer, riding
the DC subway, watching the people, feeling the jerk of the train. I now have a
science-fiction piece to work on because of that tingle. My ideas come to me
like that. I write a draft of the idea or a mash-up of notes, and then the work
starts: how do I make this have meaning? At second blush, when I get to the
meaning part, a pet peeve, a belief, a disappointment, something I’ve
experienced bubbles up and that’s when I have a story.

So
Susan, why do you write what you write?

Susan-Well,
Gay, I also get stimulated by what’s around me. That’s why I’m always offline
when I’m travelling. I want my mind to sweep new landscapes and pick up the
beauty and the garbage. I always come back from travelling with at least one
story that started to cook in my cells on the trip. When I took Amtrak
recently, I looked out the window the whole time, and saw things that started a
new story I’m working on.

Gay-So
you write what you write because something stimulates you, some outside force?

Susan-Basically,
yes. And inner forces too. Though I don’t think it can really be boiled down,
why someone expresses in a certain art form, in a certain way. For instance:
Why did Van Gogh paint in his style during the same historical period as the
other Impressionists whose paintings were so different from Van Gogh’s? I don’t
think art or the execution of art can be summed up in a particular way. It is part
and parcel of the artist (or writer), their genetics, their history, and how
they experience the world, their desires, hopes and fears. Art is a complex
mix.

Excellent
answer Susan. We just do what works for us and if we can, with or without
knowing it, we push around some boundaries.

4). How does your
writing process work?

Gay-We’ve
answered this somewhat in the previous questions, but I’ll add one more thing.
I’ve learned that a writer must have faith in his or her own process and if it’s
not working, then he or she needs to figure out why.

If
writing is painful or difficult all the time, then perhaps it’s time to
approach the task from a different direction. If you feel like writing is worse
than going through a root canal and you always outline, then stop outlining and
go free-range. See where it takes you.

If
you are always speeding your way through draft only to end up with a mess, then
outline it. Ask the magic questions: What does my main character want? What
stands in her way? What does she do to overcome the obstacle? And the most
powerful question, what is she/he afraid of?

The
idea for my novel’s theme came from me asking that question when I got a couple
chapters in and the story wasn’t going anywhere. What was Abbie’s afraid of? Then
I turned it around a little and asked, what am I afraid of?

The
answer was what if something happened to my sister – heaven forbid – and I
would have to raise her kids? Let me qualify, I love her and her three
children, but she’s twelve years younger than I am so her kids were still kids
when my kids were off to college. I would have done it, but that doesn’t mean
that scenario didn’t frighten me, so that’s the scenario I brought into my
story and suddenly it felt right.

Susan,
how does your writing process work or if you feel you’ve answered this, can you
talk a little about how you go about solving a story problem when it pops up?

Susan-Gay,
I found your comments here fascinating. Yours is a good way to tackle a plot or
character obstacle in the course of working, especially working a long piece
such as your novel. For me, writing is all about disconnection from the earth
planet and connection to an inner source. When I first started to write twenty
years ago, and sat at my word processor, I would literally feel the pressures
of life lift off my head and shoulders. A sense of lightness and well-being
entered my writing state. I don’t think anyone can “become” a writer. Or any
type of artist. You are called to it. If it isn’t an act of sheer love and
inspiration, if it feels like “work” in any way, then let it go. Do something
else.

This
notion of writing being “work” is foreign to my existence. Writing for me is
all play, all escape. Does that mean I have/had a terrible life? No. I’ve had,
like most people, times of great happiness and times of great sadness. But that
is apart from what I’m trying to get across here. All this stuff about writers
suffering – I don’t get it. I never suffer through any story or even a sad
poem. It’s a release, a finding-out of other worlds and existences for me. It’s
the ultimate existential journey. And I’ve been a journey-woman from the first
time my mom packed us three kids into the car to go see our Dad who was working
out west. We drove across country, a 12-year-old, 10-year-old, and a toddler
driven by a mom in her thirties. It may have unleashed my desire to keep going,
in every which way. I don’t know. But I know for sure that writing for me is
pure love.

Next
week, follow blog tours of Dennis Mahagin, Alex Thornber, Grant Jarrett, Len
Joy, and Andrew Stancek to meet these five fabulous writers at their own blogs
(linked below) and learn about their writing processes.

Dennis Mahagin is
a poet and writer from the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the
collection, Grand Mal, published in 2012
by Rebel Satori Press, as well as Longshot
and Ghazal, available in 2014 from Mojave River Press. Dennis’s poems and
stories appear in magazines such as Everyday
Genius, Evergreen Review, elimae, Stirring: A Literary Collection, Underground
Voices, and Smokelong Quarterly. Read Dennis' BLOGor friend him at Twitter:https://twitter.com/scruffy123.

Alex Thornber
is a writer and bookseller from Southampton, England. He has had stories
published in places like Metazen, Wilderness House Literary Review and Specter Magazine. He recently finished a
collection of stories (Blame it on the
Dust) and a novella (When We Realised
We Were Broken). He sporadically blogs atalexthornber.wordpress.comand tweets under @nucosi

Grant Jarrett
lives in New York City, where he earns his living as a writer, editor, and
musician. His work during the past eight years has included magazine articles,
ghostwriting for Pocket Books, video scripts for Epic and BMG, a monthly column
in FOW (a major financial industries publication), and a short story in
Eclectica Magazine. His first novel, "Ways of Leaving" won the Best
New Fiction category of the 2014 International Book Awards.

Len Joy
lives in Evanston, Illinois. His short fiction has appeared in FWRICTION:
Review, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Johnny America, Specter
Magazine, Washington Pastime, Hobart, Annalemma, and Pindeldyboz. He is a
competitive age-group triathlete. In June 2012 he completed his first (and
probably only) Ironman at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Andrew Stancek
grew up in Bratislava and saw tanks rolling through its streets. He now writes,
dreams and entertains Muses in southwestern Ontario. His work has appeared in Tin House online, Every Day Fiction, fwriction, Necessary Fiction, and Pure Slush. He’s been a winner in the
Flash Fiction Chronicles and Gemini Fiction Magazine contests and been
nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The novel and short story collections are
nearing completion.

Susan Tepper
is the author of a novel in stories called The
Merrill Diaries (Pure Slush Books, 2013). Her other books include From the Umberplatzen, Deer & Other Stories, What May Have Been (co-author Gary
Percesepe), and the poetry chapbook Blue
Edge. Tepper is a named-finalist in story/South Million Writers Award for
2014, and was a runner-up in The Glass Woman Prize. She has received nine
Pushcart nominations and one for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Her interview
column “UNCOV/rd” and her chat column “Let’s Talk” both run monthly at Flash Fiction Chronicles and Black Heart Magazine (respectively). FIZZ,
her reading series at KGB Bar, NYC, has been sporadically ongoing for about
seven years (possibly longer). www.susantepper.com

Gay
Deganihas had
fiction published online and in print including her short collection,Pomegranate
Stories. She is founder
ofEDF'sFlash Fiction Chronicles, and an editor at Smokelong
Quarterly. She’s had three
stories nominated for Pushcart consideration and won the 11thAnnual Glass
Woman Prize. Her novel, What Came Before, is now available for Kindle, in ebook formats at Tomely, and in print (hardcover and trade paperback) at Barnes & Noble online, and
at Amazon.com. She is working on another collection of short stories and the
prequel to her suspense novel.

Wow! The energy that leaps off the computer screen from you two just knocks me on my ass. Hurricanes should be named after both you. You're that powerful. Loved reading this. You both constantly inspire me to reach farther both within and without. You guys rock!

Great chat, you two. Nice to feel like I'm sitting in a room with you, the casual way you handle the topics. I also like the way you write about writer's block and the 'work' of writing. What Susan says here:

"This notion of writing being 'work' is foreign to my existence. Writing for me is all play..."

And Gay, here:

"The idea for my novel’s theme came from me asking that question when I got a couple chapters in and the story wasn’t going anywhere. What was Abbie’s afraid of? Then I turned it around a little and asked, what am I afraid of?"

You can buy...

Rattle of Want

Pomegranate Stories

Click book cover to go to Amazon

FEAR

Fear freezes creativity. Failure cracks the ice. You can let yourself slip into the cold water or you can grapple for purchase and scream for help until you are once again donning your ice skates and cutting an elegant figure-eight. -Gay Degani

What is Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction is to traditional short stories what lightning is to a storm… Thunder, rain, sleet, wind and lightning are all part of the excitement of a full blown nor’easter or afternoon thunderstorm. The rush of hard rain opens our eyes; its steady drum on the roof soothes us until that first roll of thunder raises our pulse; lightning makes us anticipate and 1-2-3 count. Then rain again and we wait for another loud crack, more electrical fireworks, the clouds to clear, the skies to blue. A good storm is filled with promise, surprise, fear, suspense, relief, joy, and sometimes sadness. So is a good story. -Gay Degani

And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
~Shakespeare